Proceedings of the ASME 2009 Fluids EngineeringProceedings of FEDSM2009
Division Summer Meeting
ASME 2009 Fluids Engineering Division Summer
ON MODELING OF CONDENSATION-INDUCED WATER HAMMER IN HORIZONTAL
PIPE
Iztok Tiselj
"Jožef Stefan" Institute
Ljubljana, Slovenia
ABSTRACT
Condensation-induced water hammer, which appears when
horizontal pipe filled with hot vapor is being slowly flooded
with cold liquid, is known to be very stochastic phenomena.
Time and position of the slug that is followed by the rapid
condensation of the bubble behind the slug, is very sensitive to
the minor changes in the experimental setup and consequently:
results of the simulations are also very sensitive to the minor
changes of the physical and numerical parameters in the model.
Selected condensation-induced water hammer experiments
performed on PMK-2 (AEKI, Hungary) device were
numerically modeled with three-dimensional two-fluid model
of computer codes NEPTUNE CFD. In most of the
experimental cases, slow flooding of the pipe was abruptly
interrupted by a strong slugging and water hammer, while in
the experimental runs selected in the present work, the
transition from the stratified into the slug flow was not
accompanied by the water hammer pressure peak. That makes
these cases more suitable tests for evaluation of the various
condensation models in the horizontally stratified flows and
puts them in the range of the available CFD (Computational
Fluid Dynamics) codes. The key models for successful
simulation appear to be the condensation model of the hot
vapor on the cold liquid and the interfacial momentum transfer
model. The surface renewal types of condensation correlations,
developed for condensation in the stratified flows, were used in
the simulations and were applied also in the regions of the slug
flow. The CFD simulations quantitatively capture the main
phenomena of the experiments, while the stochastic nature of
the particular condensation-induced water hammer experiments
does not allow detailed prediction of the time and position of
the slug formation in the pipe. It is shown that even the selected
experiments without water hammer present a tough test for the
applied CFD codes.
Meeting
FEDSM2009
August2-6,
August 2-5,2009,
2009,Vail,
Vail,Colorado
ColoradoUSA
USA
FEDSM2009-78399
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Luka Štrubelj
"Jožef Stefan" Institute
Ljubljana, Slovenia
INTRODUCTION
Direct Contact Condensation (DCC) is a phenomenon
where saturated steam condenses on a subcooled water
interface. DCC can appear in nuclear power plants during the
loss of coolant accident, where the emergency core cooling
system injects cold water into partially or fully uncovered hot
leg to remove residual heat from the reactor core. The
condensation increases the cold water temperature and more
important: steam bubbles can be entrapped by cold water slugs
and rapid condensation of the bubbles can be followed by the
water hammer, which is known as a condensation induced
water hammer. The pressure surge can damage the primary
piping and reactor vessel.
Despite the recent advances in the field of computational
multifluid dynamics, DCC in the stratified and slug flow cannot
be fully resolved with the numerical simulations, therefore
experiments remain a necessary tool for research of the
phenomena. When discussing the correlations for description of
the DCC one should distinguish between the two types of the
inter-phase exchange models: "integral" models, valid in the
cross-section of the pipe and applicable for 1D two-fluid
models, and local models that are required in 2D/3D models.
Two frequently used "integral" correlations for heat and
mass transfer during the DCC in stratified flow were derived
from the experimental results by Lim et al. (1984) and Kim et
al. (1985). Important models required for 1D analyses are also
models that predict stratified-to-slug flow transition, like the
one of Taitel and Dukler (1976) and Mishima and Ishii (1980).
Hughes and Duffey (1991) introduced a surface renewal
theory for DCC in turbulent separated flow, which points to an
important role of the turbulence in the liquid layer, and
developed a so-called "local" closure law for description of the
inter-phase heat and mass exchange in the separated turbulent
flows. Experiment and model of a DCC in a rectangular duct
1 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
and rectangular tank was later described by Lorencez et al.
(1997), who made a detailed measurement of the turbulence
near the free surface and clarified the impact of the turbulence
on the interfacial heat and mass transfer coefficients.
Condensation induced water hammer (CIWH) in
horizontal pipes
Condensation induced water hammer (CIWH) in
horizontal pipes is a safety issue for various fields of
engineering and was reviewed from the nuclear safety point of
view by Griffith (1996). The phenomenon starts with the direct
contact condensation of steam on the subcooled liquid in
horizontally stratified flow. Condensation induced acceleration
of vapor and liquid may result in slug formation. Once the slug
is formed, a rapid condensation of the bubble entrapped behind
the slug may follow, resulting in a strong pressure peak.
Chun and Yu (2000a) developed a set of prevention
guidelines based on analytical approximations and their
experimental research of condensation-induced water hammer.
Yao et al. (1999) and He et al. (2000) presented their CIWH
experiment in a horizontal pipe and 2D numerical simulations
of the phenomena with a VOF model for interfacial tracking,
however, their results were obtained on very coarse grids.
Ansari (1999) presented his own experimental device for
CIWH in horizontally stratified flow and suggested a correction
to the Mishima and Ishii (1980) model for the stratified-to-slug
flow transition. Another set of experiments, with some of them
being considered in the present study, with improved vapor
volume fraction measurement was run at the KFKI
experimental device PMK2 Prasser et al. (2004a, 2004b) within
the WAHALoads project of the 5th EU research program. The
attempt of Gale et al. (2004) to describe the KFKI experiment
with the 1D two-fluid model of the WAHA code (Tiselj et al.,
2004) pointed to large uncertainties of the simulations related
to the model of stratified-to-slug flow transition and
correlations for interfacial heat, mass and momentum transfer.
In 1D two-fluid model, the instability of the stratified
flow that is responsible for transition into the slug flow, can
only be described with a separate empirical models, which
introduce an additional uncertainty. This part of uncertainty can
be eliminated with the CFD approach for description of the
DCC in the transition from the stratified to slug flow. 2D and
3D CFD models are able to predict the instability of the
stratified flow and transition into the slug flow from the basic
balance equations without any special models (Štrubelj, Tiselj,
2005).
Direct contact condensation models in CFD
Various techniques for multidimensional simulations of
stratified flows are described in the literature. Among the
volume-discretization methods, which are considered to be
relevant for the DCC modelling, the most important techniques
for the interface tracking (IT) are: VOF method (Scardovelli
and Zaleski, 1999), level-set method (Smereka, 2003), and the
front-tracking method of Unverdi and Tryggvason (1992).
Another option for multidimensional simulations of two-
phase flows is a two-fluid model, which can be traditionally
found in 1D nuclear thermal-hydraulic codes like CATHARE
(Bestion, 1990) and RELAP (Prošek, Mavko, 1999).
Multidimensional two-fluid models with suitable algorithms for
tracking of the major interfaces, might be an alternative to the
pure interface tracking methods, which fail when the surface
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characteristic scales become comparable or smaller than the
grid size; see the paper by Yadigaroglu (2005) for discussion
about two-fluid and interface tracking models of two-phase
flow. An example of such two-fluid model is used in CFD code
CFX5, which was used by Mouza et al. (2001) for simulation
of the 3D wavy stratified flow without condensation.
Simulations of stratified flow with a 2D two-fluid model were
further performed by Yao et al. (2003), who made simulations
of stratified flow with and without the condensation. 2D CFD
simulations of ECC injection of subcooled water into
horizontally stratified hot leg flow were performed by Coste
(2004) using two-fluid model with interfacial heat and mass
transfer model based on surface renewal concept. Coste (2008)
introduced the modified surface renewal theory, which is
applicable for flows where the liquid Prandtl number is around
unity, that is for stratified water – steam flows, and tested it on
COSI experiments where cold water is injected into the
horizontal pipe filled with steam and water. The temperature
profiles in a steady state simulation were in good agreement
with the experimental data.
Direct contact condensation phenomena considered in the
present work is DCC in the horizontally stratified and slug flow
and DCC during the transition between both flow regimes.
Among the various tested mathematical models the two-fluid
model with large interface model (modified interfacial
momentum transfer, Coste 2008) and surface renewal
condensation model of DCC in transition from stratified to slug
flow is described in the present paper as the most accurate.
DCC phenomena in the considered geometry deserves further
studies since it defines the initial and boundary conditions for
the condensation induced water hammer and, as shown in the
present work, cannot be completely predicted by the state of the
art models.
KFKI EXPERIMENT
Design of the KFKI (Hungarian Atomic Energy Research
Institute) condensation induced water hammer experiment and
the initial conditions are based on the recommendations of the
NUREG/CR-6519 report, prepared by Griffith (1996). The
PMK-2 is a Hungarian integral test facility for VVER-400/213
nuclear power plant safety studies. The steam-line of the PMK-
2 device shown in Fig. 1 was used as a test section for the
condensation induced water studies. The main part of the test
section is 2.8 m long horizontal pipe with inner diameter 73
mm. Steam generator (SG in Fig. 1) supplies vapor for the test
section through the vapor inlet head which extends the
horizontal test section for 0.2 m and serves as a 90 degree bend
and as an inertia block (mass 200 kg). Liquid inlet head
2 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
geometry is similar to the vapor inlet head; distance between
the centers of both inlet heads is 3.20 m. Steam-line section
connected to the condenser is isolated during the water hammer
experiment. Supply of the cold water is obtained with a 75 liter
water tank (WT in Fig. 1) pressurized with nitrogen and
connected to the bottom of the vertical steam-line section
below the liquid inlet head. Water is injected by the opening of
the valve in the injection line (inner diameter 24 mm).
Water hammer experiments at the PMK-2 device were
performed at initial steam pressures between 10 and 40 bar and
at tank liquid water temperatures between 17 and 140 °C. Cold
water mass flow rates were between 0.7 and 1.7 kg/s. Before
the start of each experiment the whole construction was heated
with steam for a few hours. Steam pressure in the pipe and
water tank flow rate can be considered as constant during the
transient.
Instrumentation used in the experiment:
• Wire-mesh sensor (WM in Fig. 1) measures cross-
sectional distribution of the vapor volume fraction.
• Four local void probes with integrated thermocouple
(T1-T4 in Fig. 1).
• Three pressure transducers (P1-P3 in Fig. 1).
• Two displacement cells - strain gauges measuring
axial and radial strain behind the vapor and liquid inlet heads.
335 230 588 575 575
T1 WM T2 T3 T4
1007
WT P1 1309 P2 1150
3200
258 279
Figure 1: KFKI CIWH experimental device.
There were 35 water hammer experiments performed at the
PMK-2 device and described in the reports by Prasser et al.
(2004a, 2004b). The most important results for the present
research are temperature measurements, the wire mesh sensor
vapor volume fraction measurements, and the local void
fraction. The water hammer pressure peaks and strains were not
applicable for the present study.
It is important to stress rather large uncertainty of the
experiments - especially the maximum recorded pressure
peaks: two experiments performed at very similar initial
conditions can give very different pressure peaks with a
difference of factor ~2 not uncommon. Repetition of the
particular experiment with the same initial conditions has
pointed to a very stochastic nature of the phenomena, which
results in a poor reproducibility of the measurements. Namely,
the local void and temperatures developments are not
necessarily the same in two repeated experiments. The exact
time and position of the interface instability appearance, the
time and position where the slug bridges the initially stratified
flow, are unpredictable even in the experiment and
consequently, also in the simulations.
Since accurate modeling of the hot steam condensation on
the cold water is an essential prerequisite for the accurate water
hammer simulations, the present paper focuses on the
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experimental cases where no water hammer appeared. In most
of the experimental cases, slow flooding of the pipe was
abruptly interrupted by a strong slugging and water hammer.
Even the selected experimental cases without water hammer
pressure peaks exhibited the onset of a minor slugging, which
is again not very deterministic when one wants to predict the
exact time and position where the slug bridges the pipe.
During the experiment cold water is slowly flooding the
pipe. Some smaller slugs are formed already in the lower
horizontal part. These slugs entrap bubbles, which condense
and cause a significant turbulent mixing of the incoming liquid.
Later the filling of the vertical pipe follows. We are interested
in phenomenology in the upper horizontal pipe where all the
measurements were performed. During the flooding of the
horizontal test section surface waves and later slugs are formed.
Bubbles captured by the slug condense and mix the liquid
water, which decreases liquid water temperature at the interface
SG and increases the condensation mass transfer rate. The estimate
of the Reynolds number shows that the flow in the liquid layer
is turbulent (Re larger than ~10000). The cold water is heated
up mainly due to the condensation and only smaller part of the
heat up is due to the structure (9-12 K average estimation).
P3 Initial and boundary conditions for two considered
experiments no. 30 and no. 27 are: initial pressure 35 and 35
bar, inlet flow rate 1.0 and 0.73 kg/s, inlet liquid temperature
396 and 383 K and steam temperature (saturation temperature
at initial pressure) 516 and 507 K, for eun no. 30 and run no.
27, respectively.
NEPTUNE_CFD SIMULATIONS
NEPTUNE_CFD (Lavieville, 2005) is developed within
the framework of the NEPTUNE project, financially supported
by CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique), EDF (Électricité
de France), IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté
Nucléaire) and AREVA-NP. The code is being designed for
transient simulations of multiphase flows in nuclear
engineering. The 6-equations two-fluid model with two mass,
momentum and energy balance equations is implemented in the
code. The NEPTUNE_CFD was used and validated within the
NURESIM project (6th framework program of EU) for
simulations of the critical heat flux, boiling and pressurized
thermal shock. One of the goals of the NURESIM project is to
develop CFD tool with validated models for simulations of
transients in nuclear power plants.
The computational domain shown in Fig. 2 was discretized
with a 3D structured grid. Initial conditions represent the pipe
filled with steam at saturation temperature. The boundary
conditions are mass flow rate of water and pressure at the steam
3 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
inlet. Our tests have shown that the whole experimental device
must be simulated and not only the upper horizontal pipe
(Štrubelj, 2007a), due to the significant preheating of the cold
water that occurs in the lower horizontal pipe. Most of the
heating of the liquid comes from the vapor condensation, while
the heating of the liquid due to the hot piping walls is small and
was not simulated.
5s
7.5 s
10 s
12.5 s
15 s
17.5 s
Figure 2: Vapor volume fraction: black (blue) – water, grey
(yellow) – steam, in simulation with large interface model at
times: 5 s, 7.5 s, 10 s, 12.25 s, 15 s and 17.5 s.
Local temperatures measured in the experiments (the cold
water temperature increase) give the main information about
the mass of condensed steam and suitability of the applied
condensation model. Nevertheless, even the local temperatures
are significantly affected by the slug formations, condensation
of the bubbles entrapped by the slugs, and mixing of the liquid
water. The vapor volume fraction profile measured by the wire
mesh sensor gives another piece of information about the
flooding of the pipe, especially in the first part of the transient
with the clearly stratified flow.
The pressure measurements in these cases give no usable
information, since no water hammer appears. The local void
fractions are relatively less important for the comparison with
our simulations, since the decrease or increase of the local
temperature at the thermocouples already indicates the presence
of the water or steam, respectively.
Condensation model
Simulations with the NEPTUNE_CFD code are performed
with real gas properties (CATHARE code steam tables). More
about models and numerical methods can be found in
NEPTUNE_CFD documentation (Lavieville, 2005). Here only
the physical models that are crucial for the present research are
described. The inter-phase mass transfer was calculated as a
source per unit volume Γ = mA & , where the interfacial area
density is calculated as A = ∇α . The inter-phase mass flow
rate per unit interfacial area is calculated as:
HTCL (Tsat − TL )
m& = (1)
hV , sat − hL
where HTCL stands for the liquid heat transfer coefficient, hL
for the liquid enthalpy, hV,sat for the saturation enthalpy of
vapor, TL for the liquid temperature and Tsat = Tsat ( p ) for the
saturation temperature. The heat transfer coefficient is
calculated from the Nusselt number
λ Nu
HTCL = L L (2)
Lt
with thermal conductivity of the liquid water λL , and the
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turbulent length scale Lt. The Nusselt number is calculated
from the turbulent Reynolds and Prandtl number of liquid using
surface renewal theory introduced by Coste (2008)
2
Nu L = Ret Pr1/ 2 (3)
π
which is very similar to Hughes correlation (1991)
Nu L = 2.7 Ret7/8 Pr1/ 2 (4)
Most of the other models of condensation in the stratified flow
(Banerjee et al., 2004) also calculate the heat transfer
coefficient as a more or less similar function of Reynolds and
Prandtl numbers: HTCL = Const Ret a Pr b . Nevertheless, the
turbulent Reynolds number in (2) and (3) is actually calculated
from the local parameters as:
L u
Ret = t t (5)
νL
where νL is liquid viscosity, Lt is turbulent length scale and ut
turbulent velocity scale, which are calculated from the liquid
turbulence kinetic energy kL and turbulence dissipation εL:
k L3/ 2
Lt = Cμ ; ut = Cμ1/ 4 k L1/ 2 ; Cμ = 0.09 (6)
εL
Interfacial momentum transfer model between both phases
is the so-called "large interface model" developed for the two-
fluid models by Coste (2007). It is applicable for the two-phase
flows with the interfaces that are large comparing to the length
of the discrete cells of the numerical grid. The large interface
seen by this method is made of three layers. The thickness of
each layer is one cell. The interfacial friction in this model is
assumed to be resultant of a wall-like friction in the plane
parallel to the large interface and of the inclusion-like drag in
the perpendicular direction. In other words, it is a non-isotropic
friction and was found to give the best results for modeling of
the KFKI CIWH experiment (other models tested wer based on
"standard" two-fluid models developed in 1D geometry).
Turbulence is taken into account by means of a k-ε
turbulent model in each phase, with a special treatment of the
turbulent kinetic energy production at the large interface as
presented by Coste (2007, 2008). The turbulence quantities of
the steam at the inlet boundary are set to zero in the simulation.
The initial condition for the turbulence intensity I of water at
4 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
 520 520

470 470
T(K)

T(K)
420 420

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T1-sim T2-sim
T1-exp T2-exp
370 370
10 t(s) 15 20 10 t(s) 15 20

520 520

470 470
T(K)

T(K)
420 420
T3-sim T4-sim
T3-exp T4-exp
370 370
10 t(s) 15 20 10 t(s) 15 20

Figure 3: Local temperatures in experiment #30.

the inlet was taken as 5%. The turbulence kinetic energy contact with the saturated steam for longer time. Almost all
at the inlet and turbulence dissipation are calculated as the liquid on the right hand side of the slug is at saturation
3 2
3/ 2
kinlet temperature. Condensation is very strong in the front-head of
kinlet = vinlet I , ε inlet = . the propagating slug, where the maximum values of the local
2 0.3Dinlet
heat transfer coefficient in the transient are encountered. At
In the next section, the numerical results obtained with the front-head of the slug some smaller bubbles probably
the large interface model and Coste surface renewal exists in the experiment, but in the simulation the smearing of
condensation model (eq. 3) are compared to the experimental the surface is observed due to numerical discretization of
data. convective term in mass equation. The pressure inside the
entrapped bubble is smaller than on the other side of the slug.
RESULTS This pressure difference is the moving force for the slug and is
Main goal of our simulations was prediction of the pipe the largest just before the bubble completely condenses.
flooding wave that is observed with wire mesh sensor, and
water heat up due to the condensation, which is obtained from 1.2
the local temperature measurements. Simulations of two
experiments: no. 30 and no. 27 exhibited the best and the 1 Neptune_CFD
worst agreement with the experimental data among the seven experiment
performed simulations that did not exhibit water hammer 0.8
pressure peaks, respectively, and are thus presented
below.Detailed phenomenological description of the 0.6
simulation of experiment no. 30 is shown in figure 2. The
bubble is entrapped by the slug created due to the surface 0.4
instability or by the slug created due to the reflection of the
flooding wave from the end of the pipe. Due to the better 0.2
agreement of the local temperatures, we believe that the
bubble entrapment in the experiment occurred due to the wave 0
reflection, although the true mechanism for the bubble 0 5 t (s) 10 15 20
entrapment can not be explained from experimental data. The
heat-up of the injected cold water is the largest far away from
Figure 4: Liquid volume fraction on the wiremesh sensor
the vertical inlet to horizontal pipe where the liquid is in
position of experiment #30.

5 Copyright © 2009 by ASME

 520 520

470 470

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T(K)

T(K)
420 420
T1-sim T2-sim
T1-exp T2-exp
370 370
10 15 t(s) 20 25 10 15 t(s) 20 25

520 520

470 470

T(K)
T(K)

420 420
T3-sim T4-sim
T3-exp T4-exp
370 370
10 15 t(s) 20 25 10 15 t(s) 20 25

Figure 5: Local temperatures in experiment #27.

The local temperature development in the simulation of is about 2 s later, however these results are still in better
the case 30 is compared to the measurements at the points T1- agreement with the experiment than in the bubble drag model
T4 and shown in figure 3. The measuring point T1 is flooded simulation. The final numerical heat up of the water at the
with the liquid water when decrease of the temperature is measuring point T1 is slightly underestimated, while it is hard
observed. The onset of the water flooding is quite well to compare the final temperature at other measuring points.
predicted with the large interface model, however in the
simulation with the bubble drag model, flooding occurs 3 s 1.2
before the experimental one. At the measuring point T2 Neptune_CFD
1
flooding in the simulation with the large interface occurs 0.75 experiment
s later than in the experiment, however in the simulation with 0.8
the bubble drag the flooding occurs 3 s after latter than in the
experiment. The measured temperature peak just before t=16 s 0.6
corresponds to the steam that appears at that time at the
0.4
measuring point and points to the appearance of the slug. Only
one peak is observed in the experiment at measuring point T2 0.2
while two peaks (two slugs) are observed in the simulation
with the large interface model. At the measuring point T3 0
several water flooding waves are observed in the experiment: 0 5 10 t (s) 15 20 25
the first flooding probably corresponds to the liquid slug that Figure 6: Liquid volume fraction on the wiremesh sensor
has been formed in the vicinity of T3 between t=10 s and 12 s. position of experiment #27.
This slug eventually dissipates, i.e. it is not observed in the
points T2 and T1 and does not induce the water hammer. In the experiment, the final temperature reaches constant
Several flooding waves can be seen also in the simulation with value due to the thermal stratification, despite the fact that the
the large interface model; however, the timing and the number cold water is still injected. In the simulation, the temperature
of flooding waves are not well reproduced. At the measuring is still decreasing due to the cold water that is being injected.
point T4 the first flooding in the simulation with the large The temperatures in the simulations do not exactly follow the
interface is 1 s later than in the experiment and the second one

6 Copyright © 2009 by ASME

experimental one, but the figures represent the best behavior
that could be achieved with various models of inter-phase
heat, mass and momentum transfer models.
The vapor volume fraction from the wire mesh sensor is
compared to the result of the simulation with large interface
model in fig. 4. The difference in the time of water level rise
at around t=6 s is believed to be due to the liquid water, which
condenses in the system before the start of the transient and
cold water injection in the lower horizontal part. The amount
of the condensed water in the bottom horizontal section is not
available from the measurement. The flooding wave in the
simulation between 8 s and 12 s is lower then in the
experiment, and is not very sensitive to the inter-phase
momentum transfer models. The time when the water level
reaches the top of the pipe is well predicted.
Grid refinement studies were performed on 2 different
grids (Fig. 9): coarse grid with 8 elements in pipe diameter
(total of 6,465 hexa elements) and fine grid with 16 elements
in pipe diameter (total of 34,638 hexa elements). Results
shown in figures 3 and 4 were obtained on the fine grid. The
average CPU time for the runs on the coarse and the fine grid
was around 4 hours and 4 days, respectively. Comparison
between the numerical results obtained on two different grids
(8 elements in pipe diameter vs. 16 elements in pipe diameter),
are not shown graphically. The onset of the flooding
(measuring points T3 and T4) and the number of the flooding
waves (measuring point T2) is different in both calculations.
However the sensitivity of the results on the grid refinement is
lower than the sensitivity on the interfacial momentum
transfer model. An important result of the simulations is that
mass of the condensed steam does not significantly changes
with the grid refinement (±2%), while the grid refinement has
larger effect on local temperature development. The total mass
of condensed steam in all experiments was calculated to be
around 1 kg, however this variable was not measured in the
experiment.
The peak of the condensation mass transfer rate in the test
section corresponds to the time of the condensation of bubble
entrapped by the slug. The peak is due to the increased heat
transfer coefficient (turbulence quantities) and mixing of
liquid water, which decreases the liquid water temperature at
the interface. The beginning of the condensation mass transfer
peak corresponds to the slug formation and the peak to
condensation of the entrapped bubble.
The results for the experiment no. 27 are presented on fig.
5. These results are presented, because the calculated local
temperatures exhibit the worse agreement with the experiment
among all the simulated experimental cases.
The vapor volume fraction of the wiremesh sensor in
experiment no. 27 is compared to the result of the simulation
with large interface model in fig. 6. The difference in the time
of water level rise at around t=7 s is believed to be due to the
liquid water, which condenses in the system before the start of
the transient and cold water injection in the lower horizontal
part, similar as for the simulation of experiment no. 30. The
flooding wave in the simulation between 10 s and 15 s is
lower then in the experiment. The time when the water level
reaches the top of the pipe is well predicted. The bubble
entrapped by the slug at ~19 s is seen in the experimental and
in both numerical curves. The time at which the calculated
slug crosses the wiremesh sensor shows weak grid
dependence.
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For test cases 30 and 27 (and other similar tests not
presented in this work) precise local temperatures
development, accurate timing of the slug formation and
number of the created slugs, cannot be accurately predicted
with the available CFD models.
We also performed simulations with the CFX code,
version 11 (Štrubelj, 2007b). The Hughes and Duffey
condensation model was implemented in CFX. We compared
results of CFX with results of NEPTUNE_CFD. The same
grid was used and the same condensation model. The flow
model was slightly different than in the NEPTUNE_CFD.
Only one momentum equations was solved with one k-ε
turbulent model for continuous phase. This seems to be a
significant difference between both models, however, our past
experiences with the homogeneous and non-homogeneous
model in CFX has shown that both models give extremely
similar results, when they are used in the horizontally
stratified flow situations (Štrubelj, 2005). Simulations with
CFX were less successful due to mass and energy
conservation problems. During the simulations up to 5% of
liquid water mass was lost, on the other hand only 0.1 % of
liquid mass was lost in NEPTUNE_CFD during the whole
transient. The heat up of the cold injected water in CFX
simulations was much smaller. Simulations with CFX took up
to 50 times as long as with NEPTUNE_CFD on comparable
computers. Mass of the condensed steam in CFX simulations
was from 35 to 60% smaller than in simulations with
NEPTUNE_CFD. The heat up of the cold water was very
small comparing to the heat up of the cold water in the
experiment or in the simulations with NEPTUNE_CFD,
which points also to the possibility of the energy non-
conservation in the applied version of CFX. Thus, CFX results
are not presented in this paper, while the work on
condensation induced water hammer simulations will continue
with newer version of CFX code.
CONCLUSIONS
Condensation of hot vapor on the cold liquid that is
slowly flooding the horizontal pipe, has been modelled with
the computer codes NEPTUNE_CFD and CFX. The
experimental results were obtained from the condensation
induced water hammer experiments performed on the steam-
line of the PMK2 device. In most of the experimental cases,
slow flooding of the pipe was abruptly interrupted by a strong
slugging, which was often followed by the strong water
hammer induced pressure surges. The pressure surge modeling
turned out to be beyond the capabilities of the considered CFD
codes, thus the focus in the present work is on the selected
7 Copyright © 2009 by ASME
experimental runs performed at higher initial pressures and
temperatures, where transition from the stratified into the slug
flow was not accompanied by the water hammer pressure
peaks. Most of the research has been performed with the
NEPTUNE_CFD code, which - for the particular test cases -
turned out to be more consistent than the CFX code. Namely,
the CFX code exhibited non-negligible violation of the basic
mass and energy conservation laws.
The basic physical model in the NEPTUNE_CFD code is
6-equation two-fluid model, with the key sub-models for the
present work being the liquid heat transfer coefficient and the
interfacial momentum transfer model. Like in the experiments,
the slug formation is followed by the rapid condensation of
the bubble captured by the slug. While the flow near the head
and tail of the slug is not stratified anymore, but rather well
mixed with high inter-phase heat and mass transfer, the
applied surface renewal condensation model based on local
turbulent values still provided sufficiently high rates on inter-
phase heat and mass transfer that seems to be similar to the
one observed in the experiments.
As could be expected from the experiments and the
literature, the exact timing and location of the slug formation
turned out to be a rather stochastic variable, which is very
sensitive even to the minor changes of the closure models,
boundary and initial conditions or grid density. As a
consequence, the most useful experimental and numerical
results were values obtained before the onset of the slugging
and after the slugging was over. Another consequence of the
stochastic nature of the phenomena is relatively poor
agreement of the experiments and simulations, comparing to
the simulations of more predictable two-phase flow transients
that are met in nuclear engineering.
Several questions remain open for the further CFD
studies of similar stochastic phenomena. An open question is
dependence of the results on the grid density and time step.
This cannot be completely achieved for the stochastic
phenomena where very small changes of parameters in
physical models or numerical schemes results in entirely
different local behavior. Possible approach would be an
attempt to find suitable averaged variables that show the
convergence with grid refinement and time step reduction.
The key question for the further research of the condensation
induced water hammer is probably identification of the
physical variables that are less sensitive to the stochastic
nature of the phenomena and can be used for comparison of
experiments and calculations. An example of such variable in
the considered experiment would be a measurement of the
inlet vapor mass flow rate, which would give more
information for the development of the condensation model.
This measurement was not made due to the very low vapor
mass flow rate, but might be performed in the future
experimental runs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was financially supported by the Ministry
of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Republic of
Slovenia, project no. J2-1134.
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